


Peony

by eternalsession



Category: Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: (its rly minor but daiken lovers pls read this i had fun on it), M/M, also im giving yall flower language lessons in all these titles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 04:13:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18275549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternalsession/pseuds/eternalsession
Summary: A short work about what Daisuke's crest means to him.





	Peony

He stared down at his wrist to peer at a tiny sun, emblazoned in ink. A permanent mark. Originally, he’d decided he’d never get a tattoo because he didn’t know what to get. Besides that, he knew his parents would never approve of it; it’d make job hunting that much harder, especially with his terrible grades.

None of that mattered when he gazed at it. It was the first crest he was ever gifted, the crest that lead him to both of his partners. The crest of courage.

He had fears upon fears upon fears, layered atop each other like a stack of pancakes whose main ingredient was existential dread. Perhaps that’s a bad metaphor; regardless, the sentiment remains intact. He wasn’t a fearless person. He feared being abandoned by his parents because he wasn’t good enough a student. He feared being abandoned by his soccer team because he simply couldn’t perform. He feared watching his friends fall one by one to a Digimon that they simply should not have picked a fight with.

He feared everything. Most of all, his greatest fear was that his incompetence would lead to the downfall of his team. He was the leader, the shotcaller; he tried before to pass this mantle onto TK or Hikari on several occasions, but they both told him he was more fit to the role. After all, Taichi-senpai was the one who handed him his goggles on that fated day. They had their absolute trust in him.

He didn’t share that same trust in himself. Ken tried multiple times to reassure him that everything would be just fine, that they all trusted his decisions because he cared so much about the consequences they’d have on others, but it never assuaged his fears. They were still there, they never went away; Ken just made things better when he was around.

Well, that’s to be expected of the love of his life, he supposed.

He continued his train of thought as he gazed at his tattoo. As odd as it was, it was the only thing that helped him truly calm down. Because it was a reminder, engraved onto his body. He offered the tattoo a gentle smile.

He wasn’t sure if Taichi-senpai thought of it in the same way that he did, but over his travels he came to realize something: bravery and brashness are not the same. He could never use his crest as a justification for reckless endangerment. In fact, he could never use his crest of his own volition. It would simply inspire him, give him a boost whenever it resonated with his words or actions. At first it would react to any situation he found himself running headfirst into, but along the way that changed. For a while, he had no idea what the trigger was.

He figured it out though, not when he had to make a decision about a battle strategy or any dire situation, but when he went to recruit Ken. Though his heart told him he was right, he was still nervous. He was scared. Scared that Ken hadn’t truly changed, that it was all an act and that Iori was right. If not that, then what if Iori split off from the group because aligning with Ken would tear the group up? What if the chosen children were completely splintered because he decided something of his own? That kind of stress would eat him from the inside out.

The truth was, he wasn’t all that bold, all as put together as he looked on the surface. While there’s a difference between bravery and brashness, so too is there a difference between caution and cowardice. He was always walking a tightrope down that line. Sometimes he ventured too far off into either side and it’d come back to bite him in the ass.

 

That’s when the crest resonated with him. That’s when he knew. The reason it resonated so much in the beginning was because he was always running around with these fears in his head. After doing it for so long, he became accustomed to it. That was how he knew.

To him, courage was not about running headlong into danger; no one needs courage to do that. Any idiot can charge into a situation he’s thoroughly unprepared for and suffer those consequences. Courage comes only when you need it. Courage isn’t for the reckless, it isn’t for the fearless.

When he gazed down at his tattoo, it reminded him of that revelation he had all those years ago. Whenever he felt overwhelmed, whenever he felt scared of pressing forward, he’d stare at it. It cleared his mind. That’s why he had it engraved onto him, that’s why he left it on his body permanently. It was to never forget that message:

Courage is for those who press forward in the face of their fears.

**Author's Note:**

> In Japan, the peony symbolizes bravery.


End file.
